Summary

The GitHub Backlog Manager agent and its backing instruction files are fully functional but lack formal user-facing documentation. TPMs, engineering leads, and contributors need a guide that explains how to use the tool for triage, sprint planning, duplicate discovery, milestone assignment, and community interaction — without needing to read the raw instruction files.

Problem

• The backlog manager's capabilities are spread across five instruction files and one agent definition, none of which are written as user guides.
• New TPMs have no onboarding path for learning the tool's workflows, slash commands, or autonomy model.
• The EVEN/ODD milestone strategy, label taxonomy, and similarity assessment framework are documented only as agent instructions, not as human-readable reference material.
• Community interaction templates exist but are not surfaced in any contributing or getting-started guide.

Proposed Documentation

Create docs/tools/github-backlog-manager.md (or similar) covering:

1. Getting Started

• How to select the GitHub Backlog Manager in VS Code Copilot Chat (chat mode selector dropdown)
• Available slash commands: /github-triage-issues, /github-discover-issues, /github-sprint-plan, /github-execute-backlog
• The three-tier autonomy model (Full, Partial, Manual) and how to set it

2. Triage Workflow

• What happens when you run triage (label suggestion, milestone assignment, duplicate detection)
• Conventional commit title pattern mapping to labels
• Priority assessment framework (Highest → Lowest)
• The comment-before-closure pattern

3. Sprint Planning

• EVEN/ODD milestone versioning strategy with examples
• How the tool recommends milestone assignments by issue type
• Coordinated Discovery → Triage workflow

4. Duplicate Discovery

• Similarity assessment categories (Match, Similar, Distinct, Uncertain)
• How the tool cross-references new issues against existing ones
• Actions taken for each similarity category

5. Community Interaction

• How the tool generates contributor-facing comments on PRs and issues
• Available interaction templates (welcoming, thanking, redirecting, de-escalation, etc.)
• Voice and tone guidelines for community engagement

6. State Management and Resumption

• Tracking directory structure under .copilot-tracking/github-issues/
• Planning file types (issue-analysis.md, issues-plan.md, planning-log.md, handoff.md)
• How to resume interrupted workflows

Acceptance Criteria

• A user-facing documentation page exists for the GitHub Backlog Manager
• The doc covers all five workflow types (Triage, Discovery, Sprint Planning, Execution, Single Issue)
• Setup instructions reference the chat mode selector dropdown (not @-mention syntax)
• The milestone strategy, label taxonomy, and autonomy model are explained in plain language
• Community interaction templates are summarized with usage guidance
• The doc is linked from the main docs README

Related Files